The present invention relates to a structure for supporting a slider with a magnetic head for a linear magnetic disk unit and more particularly, to a structure for satisfactorily supporting a small-sized slider with a magnetic head.
Generally, a linear magnetic disk unit has such a construction that a slider including a magnetic head is elastically sustained by a gimbal and a support arm, the slider being flown over the magnetic disk so that recording or reproduction of data is performed by the magnetic head.
In a structure for supporting a slider with a magnetic head for the linear magnetic disk unit, the gimbal attached to a distal end of the support arm is located perpendicularly to a longitudinal direction of the slider. A joining portion of the gimbal with a back surface of the slider extends in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the slider. For the reasons, a contact area by adhesion between the joining portion of the gimbal and the back surface of the slider decreases in accordance with a tendency of size reduction of the slider, so that an adhering strength between the slider and the gimbal is unfavorably lowered. Thus, for some reasons, when the slider and the magnetic disk come in contact with each other, the slider detaches from the joining portion of the gimbal and collides against the magnetic disk, which results in a so-called crash accident by which the data on the magnetic disk is broken.
In the assembling process, the slider and the gimbal are bonded to each other at a high temperature. When the temperatures of the slider and the gimbal return to the normal temperature after the bonding, a curvature deformation (referred to as a camber hereinafter) occurs in the slider in a lateral direction thereof owing to a difference between coefficients of thermal expansion of the slider and the gimbal. An amount of camber depends on a length of the bonding portion in the lateral direction of the slider. In the gimbal of the prior art, as mentioned above, the joining portion of the gimbal extends in a lateral direction of the slider or in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the slider, and it is adhered to the back surface of the slider over the entire length in the widthwise direction. The amount of camber generated in the slider is large so that such a problem occurs that a data reading and writing performance of the magnetic disk unit is deteriorated. The large amount of camber has a possibility, when the slider is stopped, that a portion of the slider may accidentally come into contact with the surface of the magnetic disk and the magnetic disk will be damaged.